VANCOUVER - Emilie Castonguay by no means let being a lady get in the best way as she blazed a path by way of the hockey world — and she or he doesn’t count on gender to be a problem as she continues her journey.
On Monday she turned the primary feminine assistant basic supervisor in Vancouver Canucks historical past.
“I by no means actually considered gender after I was going by way of my journey. I had a really non-binary method to it within the sense that I needed to do one thing in hockey and I needed it to imply one thing to me. I by no means thought, ‘Hey, there’s solely males on this trade, I can’t do that,’“ mentioned Castonguay, who in 2016 becamethe first feminine NHLPA-certified agent in Canada.
“I simply form of obtained all of the information that I believed I might get to get the place I'm right this moment and I simply put my head down and did the work. I believe for those who let gender get in your manner or let it intimidate you, that’s when it's going to do this. And I by no means actually let that occur to me in my journey.”
Whereas Castonguay hasn’t let gender influence her profession, she is aware of her new function will imply loads to others.
“Clearly it's a massive day,” she mentioned. “I believe it’s a historic day. It goes to point out that girls have a spot in sports activities and in hockey.”
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Castonguay has a deep information and love of hockey.
The Montreal native performed 4 years at Niagara College, the place she earned a bachelor’s diploma in finance. She went on to earn a legislation diploma from the College of Montreal and develop into a member of the Quebec Bar Affiliation.
She involves the Canucks from the Momentum Hockey company the place she represented quite a lot of high-level gamers, together with Alexis Lafreniere, the primary general decide within the 2020 NHL entry draft, and Group Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin.
Castonguay’s hiring is the newest transfer in a sequence of sweeping modifications for the Canucks.
Vancouver fired head coach Travis Inexperienced, basic supervisor Jim Benning and a number of other different front-office employees on Dec. 5 after a dismal begin to the season. Bruce Boudreau was employed as head coach and Jim Rutherford took over as president of hockey operations and interim GM.
“Emilie has intensive expertise, is pushed to succeed, and has a powerful repute in hockey for her intelligence and work ethic,” Rutherford mentioned in a press release.
With the Canucks, Castonguay will play a lead function in participant contracts and negotiations, and handle the collective bargaining settlement, he added.
“She might be a key member of our management workforce and we're happy to welcome her to Vancouver,” Rutherford mentioned.
A transfer to Vancouver has been on Castonguay’s imaginative and prescient board for a few years. She has additionally labored with the Canucks as an agent, together with negotiations over a four-year, US$12-million contract for then-free agent Antoine Roussel in 2018.
So when Rutherford approached Castonguay a few job, she was intrigued.
“For me, Vancouver was a no brainer,“ she mentioned. ”I really feel they've an incredible younger workforce that's hungry to win. And I’m simply actually completely happy to be a part of their journey now.“
When Rutherford known as, he mentioned he believed she might fill the function and be nice at it, Castonguay added.
“I simply felt that what he desires is high quality individuals with high quality imaginative and prescient and that may have a top quality influence,“ she mentioned. ”And he thought I used to be a type of individuals.”
Deciding to maneuver from representing gamers to working with an NHL membership wasn’t simple, although. Castonguay mentioned the conversations she had along with her purchasers earlier than taking the Canucks job had been “emotional.”
“I can by no means thank them sufficient, your entire group, only for believing in me and permitting me to be that particular person for them,” she mentioned. “However they had been so completely happy for me and so they had been so supportive. They know the kind of influence I wish to have on the sport, they know the modifications I wish to deliver.”
As she joins the Canucks, Castonguay desires to make a human influence on the workforce’s gamers.
“Hockey gamers are people. The product that’s on the ice are human beings. And that’s essential,“ she mentioned. ”It’s tremendous essential to not overlook that you'll want to put the gamers first and you'll want to hearken to them and ensure they've all the pieces they should succeed.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 24, 2022.